I've never done a big series like 'Game of Thrones' before. All I knew was that it was HBO, and I'd seen what they had done with 'The Sopranos' and 'The Wire.' But when I started reading the script, it was a no-brainer. Yes, yes, yes. Gold. Every time I turned the page.
'The Hobbit' by J. R. R. Tolkien was the first book I enjoyed. I was 14 and when I finished I started it again.
I grew up in a business-inspired environment, and over the years have started and run several businesses and philanthropic organizations. Understanding how large corporations work, by having hands-on and board experience, I apply that knowledge to the benefit of all that I do.
I mean, when I started out I was billing per hour, like a shrink because you would sit with somebody and work. But most of it, if it's for a live show it's usually a buy-out. A flat fee.
Every time you start a company - and I've started five or six - you have the opportunity to screw up in whole new ways.
I'm an awfully loyal friend. Once I've started a relationship with someone, it's like they are syrup and I'm a pancake. Their syrup gets into my pancake, so to speak.
I've learned to suck in my stomach when photographers are around. I used to read gossip magazines all the time, but I stopped when I started being written about in them and read incredible lies about myself.
At 17, I signed a recording contract right out of high school, so I started touring and traveling the world. I sort of missed out on the college experience.
I can get a dance party started pretty much anywhere and anytime.
The whole schizophrenia angle interested me. When I first started working on it, I thought I would play up that angle more than I ended up doing. The religious aspect of the story was also a draw.
I'm pretty sure my love affair with science-fiction started with ET.
When I first started teaching at Berkeley in 1958, I could not announce that I was gay to anybody, though probably quite a few of my fellow teachers knew.
If being the lightning rod that started the Tea Party is what's written on my tombstone, I'll be very happy.
I'm from Israel, so America has no limits. I started a record label, and then I started managing other artists, like Liza Minelli.
From where started, I think it is too far down to try and win a championship at the end of the season, although we had a very good first race at Mondello and scored some good points.
I came to N.Y.C. in 1988 and got very involved with Act Up. I also started making movies, including two very gay shorts, 'Vaudeville' and 'Lady.' It was the height of the AIDS epidemic, and New York City was both dying and very alive at the same time.
Well, it was kind of accidental that Jim started playing with us, although it wasn't sudden... we hadn't really looked around to think who could be a fifth member.
At an early age, I started my own paper route. Once I saw how you could service people and do a good job and get paid for it, I just wanted to be the best I could be in whatever I did.
When I started with the national team, it was made very clear I was going to be the backup to Christie Rampone and Rachel Buehler. So for the first few years, it was just me training my heart out and pushing those centerbacks to be the best they could be.
I wonder, 'Why did I do that line that way?' And I also constantly think I'm fat and hate my teeth. But I've gotten better over the years. I've started to accept.
I started playing ball when I was a kid. My dad was a pro ball player and he passed on his knowledge to me.
You know, when I started I liked Big Macs and Budweiser and I still like Big Macs and Budweiser.
I was never a part of the Actor's Studio, because two friends of mine started it in 1947 and by that time I'd gone to California.
Women are starting something like twice as many companies as men, but the money is primarily going to companies started by men.
When I started in the business, the minimum wage was $1.25. I've seen an enormous number of wage increases. Basically, it applies evenly to everyone in the business.
I think, after about a week in, I started to get really down. I would feel better when I would eat.
So if I want to buy a light in a shop and I don't find a light that I like, I think to myself what would I like? What would I like to buy? Then I started to imagine and design it for myself a lot of the time.
When I started working with mirrors, it seemed to be the perfect material to stand in for that waiting.
Some very famous directors have started in the mail room, which is just getting inside the studio, getting to know people, getting to know the routine.
I had started to feel that somewhere in the second half of the 20th century, the idea of page-turning as a good thing had been lost. You were getting books that were the equivalent of absolutely beautifully prepared dishes of food that didn't taste like anything much.
I was so happy that it filmed in New York not only because it's an amazing city, but also because a lot of people across the world somehow started to think about New York as a dangerous place to be and envisioned it as some war zone after that happened.
When we started the band, it was because we were waiting for a sound that never happened. We got tired of waiting, and we decided to just do it ourselves.
The earliest golfing memories that I have are of the Italian Open when I was about six years of age. Watching that event is how I really got started in the game.
I started in the era when Hollywood reveled in being the most cost-inefficient industry on the planet. They used to commission a hundred scripts for every one they made.
My mother, Laura Sumner, had cerebral palsy. She was born absolutely fine, but after about three days, she started having convulsions that left her with a condition that would confine her to a wheelchair her entire life.
When I first started campaigning, I was really excited. Two-thirds of the way through, I thought, 'Why am I doing this?' Then I got really excited when I realized I was going to win.
